Everyone associated with the National Football Leagues has to be worried about this.

One of the current parlor games playing out in sports media executive suites is why the NFL’s television ratings have dramatically fallen through the first four weeks of the season....

it’s oversimplifying it to say Colin Kaepernick and kneeling NFL players are driving way football fans. But it’s a factor, and maybe the biggest factor.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that nearly one-third (32%) of American adults say they are less likely to watch an NFL game because of the growing number of Black Lives Matter protests by players on the field. Only 13% say they are more likely to watch a game because of the protests. Just over half (52%) say the protests have no impact on their viewing decisions.

Once considered immune to the audience erosion plaguing the television industry, ratings for the National Football League have tumbled through the first four weeks of the season.

TV networks have bet heavily on sports in general, and the NFL in particular, because of the must-see value of their content. While more viewers are watching commercial-free streaming services like Netflix or recording shows on DVRs and skipping the ads, sports is still primarily watched live, making it valuable to advertisers.

Shock poll: A third of NFL TV viewers boycotting games because of Colin Kaepernick-led protestsSporting News ^ | October 5, 2016 | Michael McCarthy Posted on 10/6/2016, 9:16:20 AM by

It's the Kaepernick Effect, stupid.

The alarming fall in NFL TV ratings this season is partly because of fan anger over on-field protests by Colin Kaepernick and other players of the American flag/national anthem, according to pollster Rasmussen Reports.

Maybe it was the Los Angeles Dodgers-Chicago Cubs Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, or The Walking Dead retrospective special ahead of next week’s Season 7 debut. Or maybe it was just NFL exhaustion after the Dallas Cowboys crushed the Green Bay Packers 30-16 earlier in the day, or maybe blame The Simpsons’ annual ‘Treehouse Of Horror’ episode. Whatever it was, Sunday Night Football and NBC had a real problem last night, and it wasn’t Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.

Shock poll: A third of NFL TV viewers boycotting games because of Colin Kaepernick-led protestsSporting News ^ | October 5, 2016 | Michael McCarthy Posted on 10/6/2016, 9:16:20 AM by

It's the Kaepernick Effect, stupid.

The alarming fall in NFL TV ratings this season is partly because of fan anger over on-field protests by Colin Kaepernick and other players of the American flag/national anthem, according to pollster Rasmussen Reports.

I used to love watching football. Now? The game is boring. The refs decide games. Big hits are penalized (legal hits or not). The running game has been gone for a decade (remember watching Barry Sanders take a hand off?). It's turned into basketball with shoulder pads.

The last thing I want, considering all of that, is a political lecture by a bunch of wealthy morons who've skated through life because they were born 6'6" or with an abundance of fast twich muscle fibers....regardless of what that political statement is.

Yes, I will not watch any 49ers game on television, nor care too as long as the team owners and manager don't understand that this blatant disrespect of the flag and what is stands for, for my friends in the military, and for just being in the US. Sad.

yes, you have a right for free speech, but when you are representing a team, a group - you need to respect them too.

You can kneel all you want if you are a spectator, but if you are being paid (like an employee or independent contractor), then you represent the whole team.

A lot of my friends agree and just are done watching these guys ruin it. Why support this team if they don't respect our flag.

Yes, I will not watch any 49ers game on television, nor care too as long as the team owners and manager don't understand that this blatant disrespect of the flag and what is stands for, for my friends in the military, and for just being in the US. Sad.

yes, you have a right for free speech, but when you are representing a team, a group - you need to respect them too.

You can kneel all you want if you are a spectator, but if you are being paid (like an employee or independent contractor), then you represent the whole team.

A lot of my friends agree and just are done watching these guys ruin it. Why support this team if they don't respect our flag.

The NFL isn't going anywhere anytime soon. After that knucklehead Goodell takes a big enough profit hit he'll be gone. I don't watch games nearly as much this year because of what Kaepernick pulled and those that followed.

Same here, and I thought I was alone? When I found out 3 players on my home team pulled that shit this past week, I will no longer watch. Besides my team sucks. But also it is true the game has changed so much. Yes I miss the running game, but what a big joke it is that god forbid you touch the quarterback with your pinky these days. You are flagged. What a joke! QB's in the past did not have that luxury!

In this wacky, topsy-turvy biz we call television, the one constant has been the NFL. It brings in the viewers and helps bring them back for other programming. The ad dollars pile up at a predictable rate.

Until this season.

From the start, the NFL and its TV distributors have noticed the ratings have not been measuring up to last season.

On Wednesday, Nielsen ratings cruncher Brian Wieser of Pivotal Research Group published a report that concludes that viewership among adults 18-49, live plus same day, is off 15.1%.

The big question is why. And it's just not the NFL and TV suits who are trying to answer it. It's been the subject on sports radio and among sports columnists, bloggers and everyday fans.

Two execs with much to gain or lose from the NFL on TV, CBS CEO Les Moonves and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, this week acknowledged publicly that there is a problem, but offered little on the cause, let alone a solution.

“Have they sliced it and diced it too much? Is there too much product out there?” Moonves asked at a Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco. “I really don’t know.”

Theories for the trouble abound. Here are several:

(Snip bogus theories)

The real question is what is different this season that would cause such a sudden and significant loss of viewership.

I would trace it to the Trump phenomenon. Whether you like him or not, the man is leading a revolution — primarily of white working class males — against "the establishment," of which the NFL is an entertainment cornerstone.

With its $20+ parking and $10+ beers, seat licenses and high prices for bad seats, the NFL long ago moved up in class, leaving its original blue collar backers far behind so it can rub elbows with corporate America.

Goodell this week said San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick's protesting of police violence against African-Americans by not standing for the national anthem is not a significant factor in the declining ratings.

Don't believe it. A Quinnipiac University poll released Oct. 11 poll found that 63% of white adults disapprove of the protest. Only 30% favor it.

Trump himself has blasted Kaepernick, reaching back to the 1960s for his response. The USA, he said, love it or leave it.

It is not unreasonable to presume that some percentage of Trump's millions of followers have decided to boycott the NFL on TV.

Wieser's research reinforces this theory. The loss of viewership (again adults 18-49, live-plus-same-day), it says, is far from uniform across class and race.

While viewership dropped 14.1% in homes with more than $75,000 in annual income, it was down a whopping 28% in homes with less than $75,000.

In homes with a black head of household, the decline was 9.7% compared to 15.2% with a white head of household.

All broadcasters have a stake in seeing the NFL return to full health. On a live-plus-three-day basis, the Wieser research finds, NFL games accounted for 8.6% of all TV viewing (cable and satellite included) during the first five weeks of the football season. That a huge percentage relative to the number of TV hours the NFL actually fills.

If the viewership doesn't rebound after political passions cool and playoff races heat up in November and December, the NFL and their TV partners will have a real problem on their hands, one they cannot ignore.

Interesting. I would like to know how viewership has reacted to tv in general. I haven't watched network or cable tv in weeks, almost all of my viewing is via the internet.As the NFL goes, I may watch one game a week.

-too many commercials-too many flags-over production of the games etc...

The Internet has changed the game for many industries, entertainment being one of them. Old school sports like football and baseball don't have the casual fan base of the pre-internet era, as people have more options.

It's not just sports. Network and more recently cable ratings have been declining significantly.

The Internet has changed the game for many industries, entertainment being one of them. Old school sports like football and baseball don't have the casual fan base of the pre-internet era, as people have more options.

It's not just sports. Network and more recently cable ratings have been declining significantly.

Good. I don't watch TV myself except for UFC PPV and maybe when I want to sit on the couch to watch Netflix/Roku. The rest is YouTube and whatnot.

A woman performing the national anthem before an NBA preseason game in Miami on Friday night did so while kneeling at midcourt, and opening her jacket to show a shirt with the phrase 'Black Lives Matter'. The singer was identified by the Heat as Denasia Lawrence. It was unclear if she remained in the arena after the performance, and messages left for her were not immediately returned. Heat players and coaches stood side-by-side for the anthem, all with their arms linked as has been their custom during the preseason.

A woman performing the national anthem before an NBA preseason game in Miami on Friday night did so while kneeling at midcourt, and opening her jacket to show a shirt with the phrase 'Black Lives Matter'. The singer was identified by the Heat as Denasia Lawrence. It was unclear if she remained in the arena after the performance, and messages left for her were not immediately returned. Heat players and coaches stood side-by-side for the anthem, all with their arms linked as has been their custom during the preseason.

I think people are just so frickin tired of living paycheck to paycheck, no savings, working 80+ hours a week with no health insurance, no hope of retirement to watch thugs, criminals, and unappreciative babies play a game for millions and owners for billions...

All the while they fear they can be fired at any moment if they don't work 90 hours this week like the boss wants..

Life? What life? I get to watch people who don't give a crap about anyone but themselves have a life and hear about it 24/7 on TV.

I'm tired....of this sports nonsense. Used to be blue collar guys you would relate to in all sports. Now its just a bunch of overpaid cry-babies.

Used to be players were loyal, hard working and cared about the TEAM. Now its about me me me and the $$$

Used to be you wanted to have a beer with these down to earth guys on your home town team.

I think people are just so frickin tired of living paycheck to paycheck, no savings, working 80+ hours a week with no health insurance, no hope of retirement to watch thugs, criminals, and unappreciative babies play a game for millions and owners for billions...

All the while they fear they can be fired at any moment if they don't work 90 hours this week like the boss wants..

Life? What life? I get to watch people who don't give a crap about anyone but themselves have a life and hear about it 24/7 on TV.

I'm tired....of this sports nonsense. Used to be blue collar guys you would relate to in all sports. Now its just a bunch of overpaid cry-babies.

Used to be players were loyal, hard working and cared about the TEAM. Now its about me me me and the $$$

Used to be you wanted to have a beer with these down to earth guys on your home town team.

Now?.... ha.....

No thanks...

\

Yup - I all these pos get drowned in debt, child support, alimony, are broke and destitute within 6 months leaving office. F them all - bunch of pieces of garbage

F "professional sports" - what a farce grown ass men waste time and money rooting for "their team" - morons.